


the world was on fire (and no one could save me but you)

by crookedlove



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Bathtubs, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, No Smut, SO MUCH FLUFF, Sappy Ending, Schmoop, Tattoos, all sap, and middle, but not like sad just like, idk just read it, more intense, okay tbh it gets a little heavier at the end, sappy beginning, why are harry and louis so in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-24
Updated: 2015-08-24
Packaged: 2018-04-16 21:12:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4640397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crookedlove/pseuds/crookedlove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“I… went to the shops the other day and picked this all up,” Louis begins, running his free hand through his shaggy hair. “I knew you were stressed as fuck and I was too, so I thought maybe one day I could surprise you with a nice bath and candles.”</i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>  <i>Harry is smiling hard, but his eyes are slightly shiny with tears of gratitude. He wraps Louis up in a tight hug, pressing his nose to his lovely, thoughtful and incredible fiancé’s hair.</i></p><p>  <i>“Thank you, Lou. This is perfect. You're perfect.” Harry says, stepping back from the embrace. They hold each other at arm's length, staring into each other's eyes for a sappy and drawn out moment. </i></p><p>  <i>“Okay!” Louis takes another step back, and Harry's arms fall to his sides. Louis gestures to the tub and says, “This is a bath bomb, it’s called Twilight, and the lady at the shop said it was supposed to be relaxing.”</i></p><p>  <i>“Well, let's get to it.”</i></p><p> </p><p>OR Harry is stressed and burnt out, and Louis is a thoughtful fiancé. They take a bath and it gets really sappy really fast.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the world was on fire (and no one could save me but you)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fancyachatup](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fancyachatup/gifts).



> an extra special thank you to [Jessica](http://louist89.tumblr.com) for the beta and the crying about it with me (and a bad tattoo idea that i didn't want to use but ended up using it anyway!) thank you to [Hannah](http://burninitallday.tumblr.com) for the plot idea bc this would still be a mere 1k without your help! thank you to [Kate](http://birdonahotdog.tumblr.com) for the tattoo help, you are very awesome and i wholeheartedly agree that harry should get a seahorse tattooed even though that is not in this story (did you know male sea horses can get pregnant? #harrygoals)
> 
> also thanks to the admin(s)/mod(s) for setting this up and being so organized!
> 
> a final thank you to the wonderful fancyachatup for the prompts! we got matched for one prompt and tag, and i ended up writing a completely different one than what i offered!
> 
> finally, the title is from [chris isaak's wicked game](https://youtu.be/etxHaOghrIM), which is apparently the [cheesiest love song on harry's ipod](http://www.sugarscape.com/lads/a1079273/one-direction-fragrance-romantic-quiz/). i can’t be the only one having these chest pains, right?

Sometimes... Sometimes Harry hates his job.

Don’t get him wrong. He’s so very grateful to be able to share his love for music and performing with the world, but the pressure and expectations and constant touring would wear down anyone.

Despite having these thoughts, Harry never complained. His mother had taught him to never be ungrateful for the opportunities you had been blessed with, and his experiences with One Direction’s management and PR team had taught him that complaining got you nowhere in the entertainment industry except in People magazine.

2015 had been a particularly hard year within the band. Zayn had left after months of mental and emotional exhaustion, right in the middle of their tour. Harry obviously didn’t blame him for it, but having to scramble to divvy up Zayn’s parts in their songs had been an unpleasant experience at best. The fifth album was being released soon, and Harry now has a near constant headache from finishing up the On The Road Again Tour, as well as the promo they’ve been doing to support their upcoming album. 

If that wasn’t enough, their management team was fighting Harry and Louis’ coming out until their last breath, planning stunt after tiresome stunt to protect their image and rev up sales.

Basically, Harry just wants to take a nap for a couple of months. 

+

Fortunately, the last leg of the On The Road Again Tour found them in Europe. Unfortunately, their record label and PR and management all resided in the great city of London, and Harry and Louis were just walking out of a meeting on a fine September day with the latter when it happened. 

The thing was was that Louis turned into an energizer bunny when tired. He would talk and laugh and cause mischief with a maniacal glint in his eye until someone (whether that was a handler of the band, Alberto, or his fiancé) told him to stop. Only then would he curl up with the nearest Harry Styles and pass out. 

So, there Louis and Harry were, in the backseat of a posh Range Rover, being driven home by their personal chauffeur. Louis was chatting about something inane, and drumming his fingers on Harry’s thigh as his mouth moved a mile a minute.

“Payno and I were talking about our favorite tracks from each album, and he was saying that he liked the ones written with me the most, since obviously we wrote them so they’re, like, personal and then he started talking about Illusion and I was like, ‘well, Harry has written me more than a stupid bonus track!’ and he got so offended, Haz, I swear -”

“Louis, will you just _shut up_?!” Harry snaps, smacking Louis’ fingers away from where they were still tapping his thigh rhythmically. 

Louis recoiled as if it wasn’t just his fingers Harry had slapped. He scooted slightly away from Harry as well, and while his face was unreadable, his blue eyes were slightly glassy and guarded (a sign he was hurt).

Harry sighs, closing his eyes. Louis’ reaction was unsurprising given the fact that Harry _never_ snapped at him unless they were fighting, and that, despite just talking Harry’s ear off, he was exhausted from touring, too.

Harry opens his eyes to find Louis is now looking at him oddly, brow furrowed and lip being chewed to death. Harry sighs again.

“Lou, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you,” Harry reaches out and takes Louis’ hand. “I’m just tired.”

“No, you’re not just tired,” Louis argues. “You’re stressed and exhausted, babe. Have been for months.”

Irrationally, Harry’s eyes well up with tears. One falls, and Louis reaches out to wipe it away with his free hand.

“Everything has just been so hard lately.” Harry is surprised to hear how broken his voice sounds, even to his own ears. Louis’ face softens further.

“I know, love,” he says, and moves closer to Harry again. “I’ve got an idea, though, to make you feel better.”

“What…” Harry sniffles. “What is it?”

Louis’ eye twinkles slightly, or maybe it was just trick of the light. 

“You’ll see.”

+

When they get home, the first thing Louis does is stop Harry from walking further into their foyer. He stares at Harry with an intense look on his face.

“I want you to go to the den and sit. Turn off your phone, leave the telly off, and just sit with your eyes closed until I get back. Understood?”  
Harry nods once, and goes off to do Louis’ bidding.

Louis takes a deep breath once he leaves, letting his tense shoulders down. Harry isn’t the only one being affected by all of this, Louis thinks absently. Hopefully what he has planned will be able to take both of their minds off of everything happening around them.

+

Harry isn’t sure how long he’s been waiting in their living room when Louis returns. It’s been a while, since he was starting to nod off. Harry sits up quickly when Louis enters the room, nearly bumping his head on the lamp next to him. He sighs, and when he looks at Louis, he’s smiling slightly down at him.

Louis strides over and extends a hand. “C’mon, up you get.”

Harry takes his hand and follows him upstairs to their bedroom, which looks the same as always, except for around 10 candles burning. The candles are strewn across all available surfaces, one on each bedside table, a few on their dresser, and one even sitting on a yet-to-be-unpacked suitcase from tour. Harry turns to Louis and is about to open his mouth to speak but Louis beats him to it.

“Our destination is actually the bathroom, love, let’s go.” Louis, still holding Harry’s hand, brings them both over to the entrance to the connecting ensuite. Harry’s free hand goes to cover his mouth in surprise.

If he thought the bedroom was covered in candles, it has nothing on the bathroom. The entire countertop is covered in them, sparkling cinnamon and apple spice and cranberry peppermint and more autumn-themed scents flickering merrily away, intertwining to create what has to be an autumnal heaven. 

There are more, on the closed toilet lid and the lip of the tub, which was filled with light purple water. Harry turned to Louis and raised his eyebrows in question.

“I… went to the shops the other day and picked this all up,” Louis begins, running his free hand through his shaggy hair. “I knew you were stressed as fuck and I was too, so I thought maybe one day I could surprise you with a nice bath and candles.”

Harry is smiling hard, but his eyes are slightly shiny with tears of gratitude. He wraps Louis up in a tight hug, pressing his nose to his lovely, thoughtful and incredible fiancé’s hair.

“Thank you, Lou. This is perfect. You're perfect.” Harry says, stepping back from the embrace. They hold each other at arm's length, staring into each other's eyes for a sappy and drawn out moment. 

“Okay!” Louis takes another step back, and Harry's arms fall to his sides. Louis gestures to the tub and says, “This is a bath bomb, it’s called Twilight, and the lady at the shop said it was supposed to be relaxing.”

“Well, let's get to it,” Harry says, already stripping off his shirt. Louis copies him, both of them stripping down until they're both completely naked. Louis turns and steps in, holding his hand out to steady Harry.

They sit down, Harry's back to Louis' front, letting the warm water settle over them.

Louis sits up slightly and grabs the cup sitting on the lip of the tub next to one of the many candles, filling it with water. He cups his hand parallel to Harry's eyes and pours the water to wet his hair, then quickly does the same to his own.

“D'you want a head massage, babe?” Louis asks, anticipating Harry's response before he even says it. 

“’Course, Lou. S'all you're good for.” Harry answers, words slurring slightly due to the warm water and his relaxed state. 

Louis shakes his head and begins to work some of the ridiculously expensive organic shampoo Harry insists they buy through Harry's hair, tugging slightly. Harry's eyes drift shut, going boneless from the utter relaxation that is getting a head massage and being surrounded by warm water and his future husband's arms.

+

He must have fallen asleep, because the next thing Harry knows, Louis is using his special voice (one that he will deny having, one that he uses only when Harry is drifting off to sleep or waking up from it, one that is so gentle and soft it makes Harry ache with how in love he is) to coax Harry awake.

“C'mon, love, up you get,” Louis is saying, urging Harry to his feet. “You're getting all wrinkly, don't want you to wither away.”

“How long...” Harry shakes his head to clear it, accidentally spraying water everywhere. “How long was I asleep?”

Louis gets them both safely out of the tub before he answers. “About half an hour. You looked so calm and chilled out that I couldn't think about waking you, despite the fact that I couldn't move an inch because you were all over me.”

“S’your fault for lighting so many candles and having a bath fizz that was supposed to be relaxing.” Harry sways slightly, nearly losing his balance in his sleepy haze. He glances back to see a majority of the candles have burned down dangerously low, but thankfully they're all on mats or in jars.

They've made it to their bedroom by now, Louis gesturing to the bed and raising an eyebrow. Harry bellyflops onto it and starfishes his limbs out, still naked and dripping wet.

Louis sits on one edge of the bed, carefully avoiding sitting on Harry's left hand. He takes it into his own, and starts playing with Harry's fingers.

“Was thinking about new tattoo ideas while you were asleep,” Louis says quietly, tracing a band around Harry's ring finger. “Thought of some sick ones for me, and for us.”

The heady scent of all of the candles burning is getting to Harry, continuing to make him feel tired despite having just woken up.

“Tell me.”

“Well, I haven't decided on mine yet, think I'm just gonna go into the shop and wing it. But for us,” Louis begins, taking a breath. “Just was thinking of a few ideas for more matching ones.”

“Louis.”

“Oh, alright...” Louis is smiling sheepishly at this point. “I definitely want to get a band around my finger, where our wedding rings will be, just to have, like, a permanent mark there. What do you think about that?”

“Love it.” Harry says, grinning as Louis lets his inner sappiness flood out.

“I also want to continue with the nautical theme, but that gets tricky because we've already done most of ’em. But I was looking in your nautical symbols book, remember it? And I was thinking of maybe... A lighthouse. For me. And you could get a ship's steering wheel -”

‘“Better still, be my winding wheel.’” Harry interrupts, his dimples indenting his cheeks from smiling so hard.

“Well, yeah. Or, you could get the lighthouse, I could get the wheel, who knows?” Louis babbles, before saying, “I was also thinking of more space stuff, guess the Drag Me Down video was inspiring me, so maybe I could get a moon, for you. Or a sun, I'm not sure yet.”

“No,” Harry frowns slightly. “You're the sun.”

“Alright.” Louis relents.

“I like that idea, tell me more about it.”

“I wasn't really thinking about designs yet,” Louis says. “I just know that I want anything but the ones that have, like, faces? You know the weird drawings you see sometimes?” Harry nods. “I would want a more realistic moon, or one that's just a crescent. That would look nice.”

“Where would you get it?” Harry asks, finally shifting over so Louis can lay down next to him, both of them turning on their sides to face each other.

“My back, probably. Maybe on my shoulder blade. There's more room, that way.” Louis stops himself, eyes darting away nervously. 

“Why would you need more room?” Harry wonders.

“Well...”

“Louis.”

“...”

“Louis Tomlinson, tell me why you would need more room!” Harry tackles Louis, pinning him onto his back.

Louis doesn't even really react, just sighs as Harry straddles him and pins his arms above his head.

“I could... Get your initials next to it, or on it, maybe,” Louis begins haltingly.

“Mmmm, I don't know about that. Harry Edward Tomlinson spells out ‘H.E.T.’, I don't want people getting the wrong idea...” Harry drawls

Louis laughs, flushing slightly. “Maybe just ‘H.T.’ then.”

They’re silent for a moment, Harry still on top of Louis and Louis laying quietly beneath him.

“Seriously, though.” Harry says. “Why would you need more space? How big is this tattoo going to be, exactly?”

“I wanted to leave space for more.”

“More what? Tattoos? Initials?” Harry mock gasps. “Do you have a secret lover I don't know about? You know I would be down for a threesome, Lou.”

Louis is just smiling slightly, eyes starry and cheeks still tinged pink. “No, babe. No one else but you.”

Harry furrows his brow. “Are you gonna propose again? You have that look in your eye...”

“I was thinking... When we settled down and stopped all of the touring... Maybe I could ink a few more initials in.”

Harry is starting to get the feeling he knows what Louis is talking about. Despite sitting firmly on top of Louis’ abs, he has the sensation of going up a roller coaster occurring in his stomach.

“Do you... Do you mean kids? Is that what you're talking about?” Harry says breathlessly.

“I would've thought you'd be the first to get that. You're always blathering on about it, pointing out babies here and -”

Harry clamps his hand over Louis’ mouth, effectively shutting him up. Louis’ eyes twinkle at him, managing to look slightly smug and elated despite half of his face being covered by Harry's large hands.

“Shut up. Let me think about this.” Harry says.

Harry is quiet for about three seconds before pulling his hand away from Louis’ mouth and kissing him _hard_. 

Louis makes a muffled noise of surprise, before kissing Harry back. Their hands tangle above Louis' head.

“Yes, you bloody idiot, I love that idea!” Harry pulls back, smacking another kiss on Louis’ mouth and making both of them giggle.

Thinking about it, Harry pouts. “You totally stole the sappiness award from me! After the bath and candles and tattoo talk and _kids talk_... Not cool, pal, not cool.”

+

Later, they’re still in bed, only this time Louis is behind Harry, knees tucked up against the back of Harry’s and an arm wrapped around his waist.

They’re quiet, sometimes chatting quietly about the future (near and far) and what they’re doing tomorrow.

After a while of both of them just breathing, Louis murmurs, “You’re… okay now, right?”

“What do you mean?” Harry responds.

“After today, I mean.”

“Oh,” Harry says. “Yeah. All of what you’ve done has made me feel pretty good. Sort of forgot about earlier, to be quite honest.”

“Sorry for bringing it up.” Louis says quietly, stroking Harry’s bare stomach.

“No, no, it’s alright.” Harry rushes to say. “I just needed to be reminded of why I’m doing all of this.”

Louis is silent for a moment, and Harry would think he was asleep if not for his shallow breaths and the thumb rubbing above his bellybutton. He doesn’t seem to be talking anytime soon, so Harry starts to.

“Today was perfect. I’m not glad I’m stressed to the point of snapping at you, but, in a way, I’m glad I was? Since this was so nice. I’m happy to be reminded that we’re in it for the long haul, and that we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Soon,” Harry takes a ragged breath, then continues. “Soon, I’m gonna be able to hold your hand in public. I’ll be able to talk about how much I love you, and tweet all sorts of dumb pictures that you hate I have. I know all of this, I know it’s coming soon, but it was nice to be reminded that this relationship is worth it. It’s worth fighting for.”

Both of them are sniffling slightly, thinking about ‘soon’, but also about ‘forever’.

“Harry…”

“Hey, I’m just trying to win back the sappy award!” Harry defends, snuggling back into Louis.

They’re quiet again for a moment, before Harry says, “I did mean all of that, though. I can’t wait until I can show everyone how much I love you.”

“I know. Me, too.”

Louis presses his nose into Harry’s damp hair, then begins to talk.

“Sometimes… I do worry about the future,” he says. “Just because it’s unknown. I’m in this for the long haul, you’re in this for the long haul, but I wonder if we’ll change. Like, our relationship.”

Harry thinks about that, but then shakes his head. “Maybe some things will change, but I’m gonna love you forever, Lou. My feelings won’t change. I know that, and I’ve known that since I was 16.”

“Always pulling out the age card,” Louis mumbles. “But, yeah. I know it, too. It’s just hard to think about too long. I get all worried, but I’ll always be fine if I have you by my side.”

“You always will,” Harry promises. “In fact, I’ll be with you so often you’ll get sick of me.”

“Impossible,” Louis says, nosing at the baby hairs on the back of Harry’s neck. “I could never get tired of you.”

Harry laughs airily, getting caught up in it all. The impossibility of finding his soulmate at 16, on a reality show of all places. The incredible feeling of being so in love with someone, of being on the exact same page, same line, same word. The idea of having kids with that very person, growing old and staying in love. 

Harry shakes out of it, jumping back into the moment. 

The future will come. For now, curled up with the love of his life, worries of the day forgotten, the present is the only place he wants to be.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr [here](http://fitinmypoems.tumblr.com). leave comments and kudos and message me on tumblr if you liked it! (or tell me why you didn't)


End file.
